DOWNTOWN — Electric scooters are right here to remain in Chicago.
Starting Tuesday, Divvy stations in and close to Downtown will accommodate traditional bikes, e-bikes and electrical scooters, making Chicago’s Divvy system the primary within the nation to additionally accommodate scooters in the identical docking stations as bikes and e-bikes.
Divvy has already retrofitted over 230 docked stations to incorporate scooters and can combine 1,000 scooters into the system by the tip of June, based on an announcement from the Chicago Department of Transportation and Lyft, which operates Divvy.
Scooters might be out there to current memberships and the $5 per yr Divvy For Everyone (D4E) membership program.
People who use the electrical scooters can now dock a scooter at an everyday Divvy station Downtown and use a cable that can enable them to stroll the scooter to a public rack or different authorized parking location, officers mentioned.
This yr, scooters will function so far as Armitage Avenue, Damen Avenue and Pershing Road. Scooters is not going to be allowed on the Lakefront Trail, Chicago Riverwalk or Navy Pier, metropolis officers mentioned.
CDOT Commissioner Gia Biagi joined Ald. Howard Brookins Jr. (21st), and representatives from the Chicago Loop Alliance and Lyft for a ribbon reducing on the James R. Thompson Center Tuesday.
Biagi credited broad interagency collaboration to completely carry electrical scooters to Chicago.
“You’re looking at just a piece of the partnership that delivers this kind of innovation for Chicagoans all over the city,” Biagi mentioned. “That’s been a long road to this point.”
Divvy representatives handed out 300 $5 Divvy journey credit to have a good time the launch.
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The metropolis launched the Divvy bike share program in 2013 with the sunshine blue bikes Divvy is now recognized for. Since then, town has routinely expanded this system in an effort encourage car-free transportation choices.
Electric scooters first turned out there in Chicago by means of a pilot program in 2019 that obtained combined reception, resulting in a second pilot in 2020. Even although there have been fewer complaints in regards to the scooters within the second pilot, some alderpeople mentioned in 2021 they nonetheless weren’t offered on them being a fixture within the metropolis.
“We’ve worked hard, come through a lot of challenges with respect to people’s skepticism as to whether or not these scooters can work in a Downtown environment and throughout the neighborhood,” Brookins Jr. mentioned. “With this new docking system, and with the other scooter companies coming on board and being mandated to geofence, and to come up with other technologies to keep pedestrians safe and the scooters away from cluttering up the city streets, it is a great day.”
Kiana DiStasi of the Chicago Loop Alliance mentioned choices like electrical scooters are “transformative to the evolution of Downtown Chicago” and can “encourage access throughout all neighborhoods in Chicago through affordable options.”
Future bulletins might be made as electrical scooters are added to extra neighborhoods. Biagi mentioned CDOT and Lyft are additionally engaged on new docking methods the place electrical bikes and scooters would be capable to cost when positioned in them.
The metropolis introduced in April three different electrical scooter firms, Lime, Spin and Superpedestrian, will put 3,000 scooters on metropolis streets. They’re anticipated to start operation this summer time, metropolis officers mentioned.
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Lyft’s Divvy For Everyone program, which beforehand solely utilized to Divvy bikes or e-bikes, now additionally consists of the scooters. The program offers a one-time $5 annual membership price to qualifying residents of Chicago and Evanston, and consists of limitless 45-minute journeys for one yr.
Lyft can be extending the $5 first yr membership to resume for as a few years as riders qualify for the following 12 months. The firm may even be crediting present D4E accounts $10 every month to make use of in the direction of e-bike minutes, officers mentioned.
CDOT and City Colleges of Chicago are additionally providing free annual memberships for full- and part-time City Colleges college students.
Divvy is predicted to finish its service enlargement to all elements of Chicago later this yr.
“Part of our job is to create as many opportunities as possible for people to move around the city in a way that’s affordable, in a way that’s safe, in a way that’s accessible and that’s what we’re all about,” Biagi mentioned.
“It creates an opportunity for people to move around, get where they need to go, keeps transportation money in people’s pockets, and not on gas and not on insurance and on paying for their car. So there are a lot of important ways this helps make a change for Chicago as a city but for residents as individuals.”
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